As anyone who performs a lot of physical work will attest, nothing beats having the proper tool for a job. The proper tool can save time, save money, produce a higher quality job, reduce damage to equipment, and provide for the increased safety of the worker.
Material handling is common requirement for various tasks and various material handling devices exist in an attempt to facilitate ease of transporting tools, equipment, or materials from one (1) location to another. In most cases, tools and large equipment can simply be rolled to the worksite on wheels, but materials typically have to be manhandled to the site. Materials that are heavy, wide and thin such as doors, plywood panels, countertops and the like pose an additional problem of bulk and awkwardness. While a hand truck or other transporting cart can be used to move such items in wide open areas, they are of no use in narrow areas such as hallways. Additionally, these devices are prone to damaging these materials during transport and require a considerable amount of space to store or carry which often times may be limited when transporting large amounts of materials from job to job.
Some devices have attempted to provide specialized features to increase the versatility of the transporting cart. U.S. Pat. No. 3,669,464, issued in the name of Linzmeier, describes a material cart which automatically aligns elongated materials that are placed upon it. The Linzmeier cart has a wheeled horizontal bed with side members and guide rails which perform the automatic alignment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,088, issued in the name of Nelson, describes a combination cart having a horizontal flat deck with a plurality of receiving apertures which receive combinations of differing tubular carrying means depending upon the use and materials to be transported.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,878, issued in the name of Sbragia, describes a collapsible cart used for carrying groceries or other similar materials. The Sbragia cart utilizes an upper compartment having sidewalls and a lower planer area which may be folded to permit ease in transportability when not in use.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,635, issued in the name of Stapelmann, describes a carriage for a construction panel having a wheeled base and with an articulating frame for supporting panel materials. The frame moves relative to the base between a reclined position used during transport and an upright position used during installation of the panel material.
While these devices may fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each suffers from one (1) or more aforementioned disadvantages or deficiencies. Accordingly, there exists a need for a means by which heavy, thin and wide building materials can be easily moved without the disadvantages as described above. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.